Faith-based organizations pick up where FEMA left off

AURORA, N.C. - The county with the most people in our state who applied for FEMA assistance after Hurricane Irene is right here in the east.

And though FEMA, along with insurance companies, were able to provide short term assistance, the long term needs are still plainly visible three months after the hurricane first hit North Carolina.

Faith-based groups are hoping to provide for those long term needs.

In Beaufort County, 3,600 people applied for FEMA assistance. 

Many of those same people still have unmet needs. One woman Nine On Your Side talked with today still doesn’t have a home to call her own.

But groups like the United Methodist Disaster Relief Teams and the Christian Reform World Relief Committee are working to change that.

“Time is our enemy because the longer away from this event we go, people start to forget about it,” said Reverend Cliff Harvell. For he and his team, that means they’ll need an army of volunteers and resources, and they’ll need them fast. “Our longevity is dictated by two things and that’s money and volunteers and we need both.”

Harvell showed Nine On Your Side around their disaster relief center, filled with supplies, all ready to go.

Tom Hazelwood, who’s based out of D.C., is in charge of funneling more resource into the county.

 “Most folks don’t understand the damage that is here in North Carolina. Most people think North Carolina dodged the bullet,” said Hazelwood, UMCOR Assistant General Secretary.

People like Annie Kelly. Only Kelly and her home took the bullet head on.

“We could look down the road and just see the water rolling like it was on the ocean, but all we could do was pray,” said Kelly, Hurricane Irene victim. 

Volunteers spent the day ripping out Kelly’s mold infested walls after her home took on more than a foot of water. Her floors still buckled up.

“It’s something to think about.  You don’t think that, just in a matter of hours, you don’t have any place to live.  You don’t have a shelter over your head.  You don’t have any place to go and it’s really devastating,” said Kelly.

Kelly’s close family friend, Leslie Mills, took Nine On Your Side through a nearby home.

 “You want to fix it.  I mean, you can help, but you can’t fix it,” said Mills, pastor & volunteer. But just doing something, Kelly said, is enough, “It makes me know that the Lord has some people out there with loving hearts.”

For the next two weeks, the Christian Reform World Relief Committee will be conducting a survey with hurricane victims in Beaufort County to help pin-point those needs that insurance and FEMA didn’t meet.

They’re working mainly in Aurora and Belhaven but anyone in Beaufort County is welcome to call.

If you still have unmet needs you can contact them at 252-322-1060. They’re operating from 10-4 most days.

Also, be sure to call that number if you’re part of an organization that might be able to help out here in the Beaufort County area and you’d like to volunteer your time.